Monday, September 19, 2011

U.S. STUDY CALLED BLUEPRINT FOR AYURVEDA RESEARCH

U.S. STUDY SHOWS EFFICACY OF AYURVEDAMEDICINES IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS CURE

Kochi, India (www.thehindu.com) - A recent clinical study on rheumatoid arthritis has been called a blueprint for research in Ayurveda. While the study was specific to rheumatoid arthritis, it also looked into whether complex Ayurvedic interventions could be studied in a clinical trial. The double-dummy, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical study - a procedural model considered the “gold standard” for modern clinical research - has clearly shown the feasibility of further studies of this kind. This provides a much-needed boost to Ayurveda, which has lacked modern scientific proof of its effectiveness.

In the study, personalized Ayurvedic interventions in rheumatoid arthritis demonstrated clinically significant improvement on a par with allopathy treatment, with the added advantage of lesser side-effects. While this was only a pilot study with a small sample size, its results will doubtless lead to larger studies. The study was conducted by the University of Washington, Seattle, and the University of Los Angeles, California, with funding from the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. and the Arya Vaidya Pharmacy (AVP), Coimbatore. It was published in the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology in June 2011 and can be accessed through PubMed of the United States National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. A recent United States study has proven the efficacy of Ayurvedic medicines in curing Rheumatoid Arthritis and provides the Ayurveda stream of medical management with a much-needed boost for its hitherto lack of evidence-based medicine techniques. It confirmed that personalised Ayurvedic interventions are clinically significant in improving rheumatoid arthritis on par with Allopathy treatment, apart from having the added advantage of fewer side effects. The word “Ayurveda” is made up of two Sanskrit words, àyu which means “life” and veda means “knowledge”.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

The Ayurveda system is based more on promotion of the physical, mental, and spiritual well being and balance than on treatment of illness. Modern medicine has long paid attention to the pathological state of various ailments and has been primarily concerned with treatment of the disease and symptoms. Ayurveda, on the other hand, treats the whole being, going to the root cause of the discomfort and its aggravation and giving a basic plan of action for disease prevention. Modern medicine recently has turned its direction toward preventive aspects, thanks to the lead given by Ayurveda and other allied alternative systems. ... Ayurveda emphasizes that there needs to be perfect harmony and balance among all human beings, lower animals, and even nature. We must learn to nurture, rather than to antagonize each other.